It would be nice if airline flights were always on time, but that is not
the way the real world operates. Inclement weather, equipment failure
and a variety of other problems can all result in flight delays for an
individual flight, flights of a single carrier, or flights departing from
or arriving at a specific airport or region.

Avoiding Flight Delays

While individual flight delays are unpredictable, there are things you can do
to reduce the risk of encountering a flight delay.

If you have a choice, fly early in the day. Local and regional
flight delays can become cumulative as the day progresses, impacting
flights nationwide. Thunderstorms, a significant cause of summer
flight delays, usually erupt during late afternoon and persist into
the evening hours. Nationwide flight delays are ordinarily resolved
by day’s end or overnight as normal flight operations cease and
air carriers redeploy aircraft and resources to get ready for the
following day’s flight schedules.

EXCEPTION:
Extensive regional flight cancellations, such as those induced
by a large winter storm or tropical system, result in next-day early
flight delays as stranded passengers add to normal passenger load;
these early delays may be compounded by air carrier inability to redeploy
aircraft during the prior overnight period due to airport closures.

Book flights with as few stopovers as possible. Each stopover on a
flight represents an opportunity for an unexpected flight delay to
occur.

Compare the on-time performance record of the airline you are
considering against that of some competitors. Once you decide upon an
air carrier, compare individual flights. Some flights have a history
of chronic lateness. To access flight delays history, go to the
Flight Delays at-a-Glance section of
Airlines and Airports from the
Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

When weather or airport traffic management issues create airport flight
delays, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) disseminates that
information through its Air Traffic Control System Command Center
(ATCSCC) to airports and air traffic control centers throughout the U.S.
and to international flight agencies. Doing so enables proper flight
coordination, traffic rerouting (when necessary), and equipment reallocation
to assure that the flight system within the United States remains at peak
efficiency.

The FAA ATCSCC, hyperlinked on this page, displays a map showing commercial
flight delay status at major U.S. airports. Text-only data is also
available. You can view additional airports by selecting a particular region
of the country from the top menu. Clicking on an airport location provides
more detailed information for that airport in plain text format. Use this
information as a guideline, but not as a substitute for checking with your
own airline on the status of your specific flight. Remember that this
FAA map reflects airport flight delay status, NOT status of any
individual flight.

Authored by Kenneth L. Anderson.
Original article published 12 November 2003, updated 8 August
2013.

Follow links to the right to learn more about airport flight delays.
At the left margin, Related Links address topics of interest
pertaining to travel information, resources and services. View the
Travel & Getaways SiteMap
for a complete list of travel and travel-related topics.

Flight Delay Information - Air Traffic Control System Command CenterThe status information provided on this site via a color-coded interactive U.S. map indicates
general airport conditions; it is not flight-specific. Rolling over a particular airport identifier
displays detailed information for that airport. Specific regions can be selected for a greater variety of
airports. A text-only version of the status information is also provided.Federal Aviation Administration
(FAA),
U.S. Department of Transportation

Airlines and AirportsThe Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) provides a wide variety of airline and airport
information. Airline on-time performance information and statistics include but are not limited to press
releases; causes of delays; flight delay statistics; specifics on chronically delayed flights;
summary airline on-time statistics by origin and destination airports, airline, and flight number;
detailed statistics for departures, arrivals, airborne time, cancellation, and diversion; and tarmac
times of more than three hours.Bureau of Transportation Statistics
(BTS),Research and Innovative Technology
Administration (RITA),
U.S. Department of Transportation (US DOT)

AVOIDDELAYSEach year the aviation system is squeezed harder, and air travelers are the first to feel it.
Travel schedules are disrupted, and the national economy choked. Already, delays cost Americans $9.4 billion
a year. Start here before booking your flight; check back the day you travel for live delay information.
Until we address issues to stop delays, the best we can do is avoid them.National Air Traffic Controllers Association
(NATCA)

FlightAware - Live Flight TrackingFlightAware provides live flight data, airport delays, fuel prices, FBO reservations,
weather maps, flight planning, flight routes, oceanic tracks, and navigation charts, as well as aviation
news and photos to over three million users a month. FlightAware was the first company to offer free flight
tracking services for both private and commercial air traffic, and currently provides private aviation
flight tracking in over 45 countries across North America, Europe, and Oceania, as well as global solutions
for aircraft with datalink (satellite/VHF). FlightAware also continues to lead the industry in free,
worldwide airline flight tracking and airport status for air travelers.FlightAware

Flight Delay Propagation, Synthesis of the Study (Europe)In the commercial flight sector, delays are a source of great concern, as they generate
disruptions and costs for airlines, airport operators, ground handlers and eventually for passengers.
In order to decrease flight delays, it is important to identify their origins and causes as well as to
understand their mechanisms of formation and propagation. The aim of this study was to understand the
relationship between the progression of a given aircraft on its daily schedule and its delay at successive
station stops.EUROCONTROL EXPERIMENTAL CENTRE,
European Organisation for the Safety of
Air Navigation(EUROCONTROL Agency)
[ 13 October 2003 ]
(Adobe PDF file)

Flight Delayed Again? The Hub’s the RubAnyone who has ever spent hours in an airport lounge waiting for a flight to be announced
knows how frustrating airline delays can be. Conventional wisdom on flight delays maintains that they result
from congestion due to lack of capacity at airports. A research paper by Christopher Mayer and Todd Sinai
shows that most of the delays due to air-traffic congestion are evidence of tradeoffs made by an air travel
system in which passengers get something in return for congestion — more frequent service to a greater
number of destinations.Knowledge@Wharton,
The Wharton School,
University of Pennsylvania (Penn)
[ 24 April 2002 ]